Memento
by Mahayana
Summary: "Who are you?" Yuugi whispered to the shadow leaning against his bedroom wall. "You are supposed to be dead." (Yuugi x Yami Yugi, card games, smut, season 0, and everything that implies.) Set after the end of DM.


**Summary:** _"Who are you?" Yuugi whispered to the shadow leaning against his bedroom wall. "You are supposed to be dead." _(Yuugi x Yami Yugi)

**Warnings: **card games, smut, Season 0 and everything that implies

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**Memento**

_by Mahayana_

"Who are you?" Yuugi whispered to the shadow leaning against his bedroom wall. A sliver of moonlight lapped at the figure's shins, moulding to cotton pants and dull leather boots. It was 1am. Yuugi rubbed his eyes, weary that sleep was making him blind. No matter how achingly familiar that silhouette looked, it was impossible. He took a deep breath of the too-still air. A profound sense of wrongness soaked into him. Yuugi sat up in his bed, feet slapping the icy floor. His mother and grandfather were sleeping in bedrooms just down the hall.

"You are supposed to be dead," his voice cracked, dying half way between them. "I sent you back myself..."

The shadow shifted, arms crossing in a dry rustle of fabric.

"Why are you here?" Yuugi asked, standing, stepping a few steps closer. He couldn't see...

The slice of moonlight slid up the shadow's body like a serpent as the figure moved forward. The light washed up familiar thighs, caught on a belt buckle, licked along the vinyl shirt. Yuugi swallowed past the knot in his throat. Speaking around it was impossible. The shadow really did look like-

He watched the figure reach into his back pocket. The deck he held out to Yuugi lay in his hand like a knife.

"You're challenging me to a duel..." Yuugi whispered incredulously. The deck was old, the backs of the cards showing the jagged designs of the first edition of Duel Monsters. Yuugi knitted his brows in confusion and jerked his eyes up to the figure's face.

"Why?"

The eyes that met his were like razors. Yuugi's stomach lurched. This was not the other me Yuugi remembered from the ceremonial duel. This was the spirit from his nightmares. A cold alter ego, prying the doors to Yuug's soul room open, stealing control from his body. He only remembered snippets from those times: a man sitting at a table burning to death, Ushio the bully with a knife through his hand, his own bruised hands dropping a live taser into a puddle of water.

Yuugi balled his fists. This had gone too far. Other me had left this world three months ago, disarmed and content to go home. Yuugi had watched him walk those last few steps into the gateway. Watched his silhouette dissolve into the blinding light. Yuugi had never cried so hard in his life as when those stone doors closed behind Atem.

He felt hollow now. There was nothing left. There was too much room in his body. But that was how it was meant to be. Yuugi knew Atem had to leave. Yuugi had learned to smile through the pangs of regret. Atem was never coming back.

The calm razor eyes continued to bore into him. Was this creature even Atem? Had it even been?

"What do you want?" Yuugi demanded, stronger. If this was a trick, he wasn't falling for it.

The spirit closed the distance between them, long fingers drawing a card from the deck without looking. Moonlight splashed along laminated plastic. Yuugi would recognize that card anywhere. He cast questioning eyes up to the other's. The spirit only pressed the Black Magician card gently to Yuugi's chest. The quiet in the room was overwhelming. Yuugi's heartbeat thrummed steadily against the spirit's fingertips. Black Magician was Atem's heart. The magician had been the focus of Yuugi's deck for so long. It was their link.

The spirit ripped the card in half.

Yuugi fell back a step, startled. The two severed halves of the card fluttered to the floor at his bare feet. He stared them in horror. What had the spirit always whispered in his nightmares? _You have trespassed into the domain of my heart..._

Yuugi's lips pressed into a tight line.

"We are not playing Duel Monsters."

Red eyes sliced into Yuugi's, a warning threaded there. This must be what his opponents felt like facing him, Yuugi thought with a shiver, goose bumps rising on his arms. But Yuugi had changed. He wasn't the same, friendless boy from two years ago.

"I said, we are not playing Duel Monsters," Yuugi repeated firmly. Atem had had his duel with him. The memory cut too freshly in his mind. And he wasn't going to give in to whatever sick game this spectre would invent. But he knew his other me. The spirit would not leave without a game. "We will play a variant."

The spirit raised a finely-carved eyebrow.

"Three rounds," Yuugi began. "We each draw a monster card. Declare if it's in attack or defence position. Non-monster cards means a re-draw. We turn them over at the same time. The one with the higher attack or defence points wins..."

The spirit nodded. The rules were simple enough. He cast an expectant look at Yuugi's desk. He was waiting for him to fetch his cards.

"We draw from the same deck."

The spirit hissed, red eyes narrowing. He didn't like that. Yuugi grunted as the air around him seemed to freeze into place. A solid thing. Yuugi couldn't breathe, but he wouldn't back down. A few strained moments passed between them. Then broke like a violin string as the spirit relented... The spirit nodded in mute understanding. This was how they had always played. One deck. One person.

Wordlessly, the spirit held the cards out for Yuugi to shuffle. Their hands brushed as Yuugi took the deck.

The first card Yuugi drew was Big Tree. The card was ancient, out of print now for years. Yuugi grinned as he realized the spirit was using Yuugi's very first deck. Yuugi fondly stroked a thumb over the faded illustration of a gnarled tree. He had started playing Duel Monsters around the same time as he had met other me...

They lay their cards face down in the palms of their hands, amidst the darkness and quiet of Yuugi's bedroom, flipping them over at the count of three. Yuugi half expected the images to come to life. Maybe slaughter each other. Games with his other me often came with violence or the threat of dark magic. Yet nothing happened. No magic, no holograms. The room remained still. Instead Yuugi leant over the spirit's palm and squinted at the tiny black numbers stamped on the card's edge. Chimera, 2300 attack versus Yuugi's 600 defence. Yuugi had lost the first round. He exhaled through his nose and let Big Tree flutter to the ground, wiping his damp palms against his pyjama bottoms. The spirit was smirking at him.

Yuugi watched him draw. He missed him. He missed the tilt of his mouth as he played, the thoughtful look in his eyes. He wasn't going to cry. He didn't even know if this was really other me... Yuugi drew his second card. The spirit's skin was surprisingly warm and solid against his as their hands brushed again. An illusion wouldn't be this solid, would it? Surely Yuugi would be able to tell. He knew his other me. And yet...

Yuugi didn't know what to think. He checked his second card. The witch Violet Hecate stared up at him, 1500/1500 attack. Yuugi set her in attack mode. Again, they flipped their cards at the same time. The witch beat the spirit's Death Wolf 1500 to 1200. He let her fall.

He didn't regret sending Atem to the afterlife, Yuugi stubbornly told himself as he drew his third card, nervous fingers sticking to the old laminate. Atem had wanted to go. He needed to go home. Those last few hours on the ship to Egypt, the Pharaoh's eyes had looked _so old_...

Yuugi turned his last card. Summoned Skull's mangled face leered at him. They had played two turns, and were tied. Summoned Skull was the strongest card in the deck. Yuugi's eyes flicked up to the spirit's.

He didn't look worried. That prim smirk was still plastered over the his lips. Yuugi's fingers twitched.

The spirit watched him with confident eyes as Yuugi laid his hand over top of the deck. A gesture meant for forfeiting. His smirk widened by a fraction. Yuugi firmed his mouth, and pushed the deck out of the spirit's hand, scattering cards over the floor.

Without warning, Yuugi covered the spirit's mouth with his own. The spirit stumbled back as Yuugi pressed harder into him, forcing his mouth open. Yuugi gripped him hard, pulled him close. This was Yuugi's only regret. This was his could-have-been. He pushed him against the wall, tangled their fingers together. He wanted to be with him. He wanted to play Duel Monsters, chess, video games. He wanted to explore his body, explore his mind. Wanted to be a teenage boy with him, without the responsibility of the world hanging off their shoulders. The spirit finally closed his eyes. Yuugi felt him kissing back. He inhaled a shaky breath through his nose. This was real, he told himself. This was not a dream.

The spirit's body went soft against his, pliant. His lips were warm. Yuugi opened his eyes a crack to watch other me. He felt an arm wrap around the small of his back. Yuugi slid a thigh between the spirit's legs just as he slid his mouth down the spirit's jaw. A hot breath of air against his ear was the only encouragement he needed. Other me pushed against him, strong and confident. Yuugi admired that about him. He had surprised himself by taking the initiative, but then again... Atem had taught him many things. Having the courage to fight for himself was only one of them.

Yuugi pressed his leg higher, sliding it along the spirit's inner thigh. His body was warm and firm against Yuugi's. A soft moan pried the spirit's lips apart. Yuugi moved in again to kiss him, their noses bumping in desperation. Other me started sliding down the wall, Yuugi following mutely, not willing to separate their mouths again.

Yuugi's heart was going to explode. He wanted to scream in joy. The desperation turned into a wave of lust so violent Yuugi wouldn't have recognized it in himself. He felt like he was drowning. He pushed his knee higher, pushed it against other me and made him arch off the floor. Covered his body with his own, did his best to merge them back into one person.

The spirit writhed under him, opening his mouth for him, opening his knees, pushing hard against Yuugi. Their fingers tangled, then let go as fingers traveled up thighs, ribs, tugged at hair, scrapped against exposed skin.

The spirit broke their kiss and gasped as Yuugi's fingers found a sensitive spot. His head fell back, exposing his throat. Yuugi mouthed it as he pressed harder against the spirit with his knee. The spirit buckled, arched off the floor, a mute scream on his lips as he came.

Yuugi breathed into the spirit's damp shoulder, still hard, heart pounding. Sweaty fingers crept along his overheated skin. The spirit leant up, moist breath ghosting along the fine hairs at Yuugi's neck. The spirit's fingers found his throat, ran blunt nails down his windpipe. The spirit leant up, enclosed him in the cage of his arms, and whispered hoarsely into his ear, "Penalty game."

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**Author's Notes:** I will leave it up to your immagination what the "Pentaly game is." I'm cruel, I know.

I was going through my old laptop's files and... voila, finished fic I'd never posted. I remember researching the daylights out of Yuugi's season 0 deck for this story. Other things I found on my laptop... half-finished chapter 2 of Dragon Flame & Sword. Oh self... Having to come up with card games never fails to derail me. Hope you enjoy the story anyway! Reviews are always apreciated.


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